Eyewear, such as sunglasses, is worn during a wide variety of activities and must be capable of meeting numerous consumer demands. They must be conformable, aesthetic looking, durable, and inexpensive. However durable eyewear are made, their lenses are frequently scratched or broken. The replacement of the broken or otherwise damaged lenses, obviously, is less expensive than replacing the entire frame and lens set.
In addition to replacing damaged lenses, it is often desirable to modify the eyewear between indoor and outdoor use. Interchangeable lenses are also appealing to far-sighted individuals who do not like bifocals and prefer to change the lens in their frame between near and far vision applications. Finally, there is a wide variety of colors, designs and shapes of eyewear. Therefore, lens replacement would also allow for inexpensive color coordination and other stylistic statements.
Recently, eyewear has been developed having interchangeable lenses or lens assemblies, purportedly permitting simple replacement of lenses. Generally these lenses are unitary lenses attached to a temple member/frame. Other replaceable and/or interchangeable lens eyewear designs have been complex mechanical assemblies that are expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble and use. Clip-on, or snap-in, lenses are a popular solution to the need for multiple lenses with a single frame. Clip-on lenses are attached to a pair of eyeglasses by a clip, or other mechanism, typically located at the center of the clip-on lenses. Typically, some additional structure is added to the eyewear for holding an additional lens or pair of lenses behind or in front of the eyewear lenses. Use of multiple lenses solutions can be disadvantageous because they frequently result in poorer optics. Furthermore, the may be cosmetically unattractive.
Another difficulty has been found in providing a reliable, readily interchangeable lens and frame set having a high quality frame without sacrificing the structural integrity of the frame. Interchangeable lenses currently provided in single-lens eyewear and in folding eyewear have highly resilient frame members, but a practical means has not been provided, until now, for allowing the rapid, yet reliable and secure, exchange of a high quality lens set in an attractive, high quality frame.
There is, therefore, a current and continuing need for a simple, relatively inexpensive lens replacement system that may be employed to support a pair of fashion or performance sunglass lenses that will provide for interchangeability or quick and cost effective replacement of the various lens types on a single frame.